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No homos!
• Opposition to gays in the Cabinet
Opposition leader Bruce Golding is among politicians, clergymen, and labour leaders against the appointment of homosexuals to the political executive or other official positions in the public sector.
He was adamant that no homosexuals would find solace in any Cabinet formed by him.
Golding declared that he didn’t support homosexuality and would do nothing as Prime Minister, if given the chance, to legislate to legitimise the act.
The JLP leader conceded that his party had not discussed the matter in any great detail but given recent events, particularly discussions before the Charter of Rights Committee of Parliament, a comprehensive debate by the Opposition was imminent.
He said he has never been faced with the prospect of having someone disqualified from the Labour Party because of their sexuality.
Government backbencher Victor Cummings said he had no problem with homosexuals holding public office as long as it did not undermine the office.
Cummings reiterated the call for the law to be amended to make the penalty for rape of boys similar to that of girls, which attracts the maximum life imprisonment.
No corruption
University and Allied Workers Union UAWU president, Lambert Brown, reflected on the controversy in the 90s in which the government sought to issue condoms in prisons, arguing.
“The move could be seen as the opening shot for legalising homosexuality in Jamaica,” he said.
Accepting that homosexuality is a growing phenomenon in Jamaica, Brown said he did not want the Cabinet to be corrupted by persons of such immoral practice.
Pastor of the Portmore Missionary Church and Sunday Herald columnist, Rev. Garnett Roper, admitted that he has known cases where homosexuals have been appointed Cabinet Ministers.
“This is old news where known homosexuals have been appointed to the Jamaican Cabinet,” Rev. Roper declared.
However, he argued, “I don’t think the day will come in Jamaica when someone is appointed to the Cabinet because of their homosexuality; however, the day has gone where homosexuals found themselves in the political executive.”
He cautioned persons with homosexual tendencies in political office “to approach their job with a sense of public sensibility meaning that their sexual preference should not be flagrant and demeaning to the office.”
Rev. Roper was livid about persons in high society, who are not just homosexuals but are also paedophiles. He stated that he has heard names of high ranking public officials, who are homosexuals and are paedophiles, and declared, “they are treating the law with contempt, particularly as it relates to paedophilia.”
No discrimination
Giving a religious perspective to homosexuality in public office, Rev. Roper stated no one should be discriminated from public office because of their sexuality, especially if they are right for the job. However, their lifestyle in office “ought not to be an offence to public taste.”
Tele-evangelist, Rev. Al Miller expressed the view that there has been a conscious attempt by many persons in high places to desensitise homosexuality so that the practice can be more tolerated.
He explained that some sections of the society have been very tolerant, hence homosexuality being on the rise in Jamaica.
Miller declared, “It is for these reasons why Jamaica is under judgement from God, which is manifested in the spiritual and moral decay in the country.”
Catholic lay-preacher, sociologist and columnist, Peter Espeut, views homosexuality “as an unnatural disorder caused by improper socialisation”.
He argued that Jamaica is unique when it comes to homosexuality because the society is so homophobic that it reacts very violently towards people of same sex.
Espeut said, “Our sexuality is so fragile that Jamaican men seem threatened at the slightest challenge of their manhood.”
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